Chapter: 42
Min Seo-ho‘s current stalker, Pyo Ji-woo.
For a whole year, she dedicated herself to becoming an actor, driven by the obsession to get closer to him.
Not satisfied just with her successful debut, she ended up on the same stage as him.
As expected of a talented newcomer, she managed to sneak into the same group as Min Seo-ho in “Eyes Closed.”
But wait, there’s more! With her bold appeals, she even snagged the girlfriend position.
Truly a heartwarming success story of a stalker.
However, the problem arose afterward.
It came to light that Min Seo-ho was entangled with a complex web of women.
“Min Seo-ho is currently dating… five women.”
That’s some serious octopus-level tentacles.
At this point, isn’t he almost a ‘girlfriend per day’ kind of guy?
Plus, it turns out he was practically living it up at clubs with his friends.
Pyo Ji-woo knew he went to clubs, but she never imagined he was juggling five girls.
The end result? An ending straight out of a “Swordmaster” saga.
“…You’re here?”
“Y-yeah.”
Well, it does feel a bit guilty to admit it, but Pyo Ji-woo did manage to dunk someone.
Naturally, I felt a bit uneasy about it.
I discreetly checked Pyo Ji-woo from head to toe.
What if she brought a weapon?
Phew—nothing suspicious at all.
Now that I think about it, Pyo Ji-woo doesn’t even carry a bag.
Just jeans and a plain shirt most of the time.
Honestly, she dresses more like a dude than a girl.
“Why are you in your school uniform?”
“Because I came straight from school.”
What a silly question to ask.
As a current high school student, of course, I’d be wearing a uniform.
“…Though, this limited wardrobe at home doesn’t help.”
My mom’s hobby is making me look good.
Of course, I get the full treatment in various beauty standards.
She paying a lot of attention to my outfits wasn’t a surprise either.
That’s why my closet is filled with bright clothes I didn’t even choose.
So, the most decent outfit I could wear was my uniform.
Joo Seoyeon, 17 years old and still wearing clothes picked out by her parents…
“I’ve been curious about one thing.”
“Yeah?”
“You know… you’re looking at me kinda weird?”
“That’s just your imagination.”
With about a meter of distance between us, I walked while keeping a safe measure.
A position from which I could react to anything happening at any moment.
Pyo Ji-woo responded with her usual eerie expression, scanning the area.
“And why here? …Doesn’t seem like a place you’d come to…”
“Well, that’s…”
I thought about explaining further but shook my head.
It’s better just to show her than trying to explain it.
If I blabbed about it, she might come at me thinking I’m trying to deceive her.
“Let’s go for now.”
We were standing in a nightlife district in Gangnam.
This was a place that our leading actor, Min Seo-ho, frequented.
*
Pyo Ji-woo squinted, watching Seoyeon‘s back as she walked ahead.
Long, black hair.
Her expression was almost non-existent, making her look like a beautiful doll.
“Wearing a school uniform here, huh?”
Seeing Seoyeon walking through Gangnam’s nightlife at this time naturally garnered attention.
It was half past ten at night.
Of course, a high school girl wandering a nightlife district at this hour stands out.
She was growing from girlhood into womanhood.
With her beauty, it was no surprise that the eyes of boys trailed after Seoyeon.
That natural aura of an innate star.
You could say she’s a one-in-a-million talent actor.
Pyo Ji-woo isn’t someone to be overshadowed in appearance either; that’s why she’s involved in acting.
There is definitely a market for unique-looking actors, but being good-looking is still the way to go.
You can hide an ugly face with makeup, but the opposite is usually impossible.
In that sense, Seoyeon was someone Pyo Ji-woo was wary of.
She stirred her feelings of inferiority.
Even though Seoyeon herself seemed to shun such feelings, Pyo Ji-woo didn’t feel comfortable around her.
That’s why she was genuinely curious about why Seoyeon invited her here.
“Something seems off.”
That uneasy feeling lingered as Pyo Ji-woo followed along.
“Shh.”
Seoyeon raised her hand momentarily to signal silence.
“Come this way.”
Seoyeon led her to an alley near a club.
Seeing the lines of people waiting to enter, it must have been a pretty well-known spot.
“Why here?”
With those inquisitive thoughts, Pyo Ji-woo remained silent and waited.
Her heart raced with an ominous anticipation.
And to further validate that anxiety, a group appeared.
Two guys and three girls.
They seemed familiar with the staff manning the club entrance; they were waving and greeting them.
At first, Pyo Ji-woo didn’t realize.
The clothes weren’t those he typically wore, and he was wearing a black mask.
“…!!”
But when the guy pulled down his mask, revealing himself to the staff.
Pyo Ji-woo instinctively covered her mouth with both hands.
It was none other than Min Seo-ho.
He had his arm slung around one woman’s waist while laughing.
And if that wasn’t enough, another woman was clinging to him.
It didn’t look like they’re just friends.
Click.
The sound of a camera jolted Pyo Ji-woo back to reality.
Turning her head, she saw Seoyeon taking pictures of Min Seo-ho.
“You, you, you… wait, you knew?”
“Yeah.”
“How?”
Pyo Ji-woo had almost every pattern of Min Seo-ho’s life down pat.
So how did Seoyeon come to know about Min Seo-ho’s hidden private life?
“Umm, just a coincidence?”
She couldn’t reveal it was due to a past life.
How could she say that this very club was where Min Seo-ho frequently hung out and had been a hotspot for Pyo Ji-woo?
“Wahhh!!!”
For a moment, Pyo Ji-woo froze before she dashed out of the alley.
Well, she tried to run.
If Seoyeon hadn’t grabbed her waist and pulled her back, she might have made it.
“What kind of ridiculous… strength is this?!”
Pyo Ji-woo felt the same as before—no matter how hard she struggled, it was like trying to shake off a mountain.
Giving up, Pyo Ji-woo shouted,
“W-why did you show me this!! Why, why do this to me!”
It would’ve been better if she hadn’t known at all.
Tears bubbled up on their own as she watched Min Seo-ho disappear into the club.
While she wanted to direct her anger at Seoyeon, her grip was too tight for her to voice anything.
If Seoyeon just so chose to throw her around, she feared she might fly into the air.
So, Pyo Ji-woo had no choice but to resort to rebellion in words.
“Why are you doing this to me?”
And as such, she felt the tears flow more freely.
Bawling her eyes out while watching Min Seo-ho enter the club, Seoyeon sighed softly.
“…You came after Min Seo-ho, didn’t you?”
“But what’s wrong with that?”
“It’s not wrong, but do you really think you can just act like that after seeing this?”
“…”
Seoyeon was basically saying,
If you find out later everything goes well, would you really just move on?
Not to mention, Pyo Ji-woo had entered acting because of Min Seo-ho.
If she didn’t realize, she would only waste time.
At the very least, her acting shouldn’t solely revolve around Min Seo-ho.
“That incident…”
Truth be told, if it weren’t for the “Swordmaster” incident, Seoyeon wouldn’t have dragged her this far.
This wasn’t for Min Seo-ho.
It was purely for the talented actress, Pyo Ji-woo.
“Ughhhh!!”
As Pyo Ji-woo sighed loudly, crying her heart out,
“Hey.”
A burly man approached them.
He looked at the sobbing Pyo Ji-woo and the smartphone-wielding Seoyeon back and forth and said,
“Hey, student, what were you filming earlier? I saw everything. Can I see your phone for a sec?”
With that, Seoyeon casually glanced around.
No one seemed overly curious yet.
It appears there was a guard ready at the club for such incidents.
“Ji-woo, listen up.”
“W-what??”
“When I give the signal, just run, okay?”
“Signal? What do you mean?”
As that thought crossed her mind, the club guard approached.
Upon seeing Seoyeon‘s striking appearance, his eyes widened.
‘Is she a celebrity?’
She looked like someone who, if she weren’t wearing a school uniform, could waltz in without paying.
But given the footage from earlier, they needed to confirm what had been captured.
“Hey, just hand over that phone nicely…”
As the guard reached for Seoyeon‘s outstretched hand, he abruptly felt her palm connect with his chest.
“Wha—?”
In an instant, the scenery changed.
Pyo Ji-woo realized the guard stumbled backward, shocked.
Seoyeon had shoved him back with surprising strength.
The guard, close to 190 cm tall, had been shoved several meters back.
He was caught off guard, but the force from a girl felt like being bulldozed by someone of similar weight class.
“Now.”
Seoyeon immediately grabbed Pyo Ji-woo‘s hand and dashed away.
Truth be told, it was more like Pyo Ji-woo was being dragged along.
As the club guard began to regain his balance, Seoyeon and Pyo Ji-woo had already slipped away.
“Haah, haah.”
After crying, Pyo Ji-woo, out of breath, plopped down on a nearby bench.
Seeing Seoyeon without a drop of sweat, Pyo Ji-woo was left in disbelief.
‘What on earth is she?’
Is this how today’s high school girls are?
There’s no way that could be true.
In the aftermath of everything that just transpired, she wanted to say something but found it hard to organize her thoughts.
“Uh, what now?”
Though she had impure motives, she sacrificed a whole year for acting.
Having been mostly mediocre, she wondered if acting was her hidden talent.
If dating Min Seo-ho was a possibility, she thought about continuing this career.
But now all motivation had vanished.
“Why show me this?”
Again, she asked why Seoyeon felt the need to reveal the truth about Min Seo-ho.
Seoyeon glanced at Pyo Ji-woo, who seemed dazed.
She looked awkward.
It looked like revealing such feelings was somewhat embarrassing for her.
Her usual impassive face and shallow expressions made that stand out even more.
“That’s all there is to it.”
With that, Seoyeon took her leave.
Pyo Ji-woo could only watch her retreating figure in silence.
Just without a word.
*
“So…”
Lee Ji-yeon asked me with an intrigued expression.
“So, what happened with Min Seo-ho?”
“He dropped out.”
No, obviously, Seoyeon didn’t report him to the police.
Days later, Seoyeon received a call that she got accepted for an audition.
That’s when she casually brought up what had happened during her meeting with Jo Do-yul.
“…This photo, is it real?”
“Yeah. I got it from a sister I know who took the shot.”
“Haah…”
Jo Do-yul shook his head, looking like he had a headache.
In general, plays often have two to three actors sharing the same role.
A typical performance daily can range from two to three, and it’s impossible for just one actor to cover them all.
This was the same for “Eyes Closed,” where there were three actors for the role of Bae Seong-hak.
Just as a reference, this audition was doing a casting call for the role of Hong Jeong-hee in the segment starring Min Seo-ho.
The last two teams had continued with the original cast from the debut performance.
One team was lacking, so they decided to keep Min Seo-ho as the lead while recruiting others for the remaining roles.
“Guess we need to find a new Bae Seong-hak as well…”
A sigh escaped him.
While generally, actors’ private lives aren’t heavily scrutinized, this close to a show’s opening, getting involved in any scandal can mean big trouble.
Especially with two women involved…
“Why’d it have to be a student?”
Joo Seoyeon.
The impact of her name definitely weighed heavily.
Jo Do-yul couldn’t help but sigh at his aching head.
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